Pages

Friday, 11 October 2013

Knott a day to be out without windproofs

Hattie was having a free inside and out valet today (and very smart she looks for an old girl) so it was early afternoon before Daisy and I set off for Buttermere. The idea was to park at Newlands Hause and do the 'out and back' walk to Knott Rigg and Ard Crags, which would have been a great idea on a day when there wasn't a gale blowing from the north! A daft excursion on a windy day but what the heck :}

Daisy coped superbly with being blown about and bounced along, chased her tail and generally had a marvellous time. Hobbit didn't do so well - there were times when I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. The wind was probably blowing around 30mph all the time with gusts of 40/45mph. Lack of progress because I was being blown backwards wasn't so much of an issue, the biggest problem was that my eyes were watering so much I couldn't see where we were going. Discretion is always the better part of route finding and this lovely ridge will be here another day; I turned around a few yards from the first summit. Very hard to hold the camera steady to take any pictures.

Looking back to Knott Rigg from the waterfall:

After a brief visit to Moss Force waterfall we drove down the valley to do a bit of shopping in Keswick. Had a good nosey at the new house at Rigg Beck. It looks superb, like something out of Grand Designs and whilst I don't generally like modern buildings I could make an exception for this one.

The eagle-eyed will notice Daisy is now modelling black as this season's colour. The red Hurtta coat was superb, but early in the spring I noticed a section that was wearing really badly. I could have fixed it but these coats are expensive and I didn't think I should have to. Had a conversation with Karen at Podgy Paws who immediately took the coat, sent some photos to Hurtta in Finland and a week later I was given a replacement - can't fault service like that :}